Saturday, January 25, 2014

For many
of us this has been the coldest, snowiest, nastiest winter in recent memory. It
begs the too simple question: What happened to global warming?

The global warming debate started spinning following
the El Nino of 1997-98 when winter in many winter places was shockingly warm
and wet. The world was getting warmer, the Arctic would melt, oceans would rise
and there would be catastrophic environmental changes.

Since that great El Nino, however, large parts
of North America have been cooler. In my part of the world I can’t
remember so many mornings when the thermometer occupied the minus 30 Celsius
range.

Snow at Shaman's Rock

Scientific reports show that there has been
little overall increase in global warming in the past 15 years. This of course
has led to much controversy about whether global warming is over hyped. The
January 2014 issue of Nature magazine
has a fairly good article of the global warming ‘hiatus.” It explores the
theory that the missing heat has much to do with the Pacific Ocean and the likelihood
that the warming trend will be back soon.

More current information on global warming will
be available when the global Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Changehttp://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/press/media_advisory_wg1_full_report_140124.pdf releases
a new report January 30. This is a report by committee so expect the information
to be hidden in a brain-twisting maze of bureaucratic gobbledygook. However,
enterprising journalists will sort out what it all means and pass it along to
the rest of us.

Hopefully the report will explain where the
missing heat has gone and when we can expect it to return. Any time now would
be much welcomed.

Friday, January 17, 2014

There’s so much human hurt to follow in August: Osage County that some viewers might miss the thread of delicious irony that runs through it. The extended Weston family has gathered at the Oklahoma plains family home to deal with a sad consequence of the patriarch’s (Sam Shepard) alcoholism and the matriarch’s (Meryl Streep) drug addiction. It’s a pathetically dysfunctional family tearing at each other like a snarling pack of plains coyotes. Past hurts, intrigues, secrets and grudges have created a mean-spirited atmosphere.

Roberts and Streep

At the edge of the family chaos is a young woman named Johnna (Misty Upham), a Cheyenne who has been hired as a house servant. She says little but sees all as she cooks and cleans up the messes left by the family’s tantrums. Johnna is the calm, grounded, spiritual person among a group that is a psychologically crumbling mess. The only time she jumps out in front is to break up the near rape of the Weston’s fourteen-year-old granddaughter.i Osage County, until roughly one hundred years ago, was part of the flat desolation called Indian County. It is part of the territory where thousands of Indians, forced from their traditional homes in other parts of the United States, were moved because white society considered them savages impeding settlement progress. This movie leaves you wondering, once again, which society really had its head on straight.

Friday, January 10, 2014

For those of us who fly
tourist class, the days of comfort are but a vapour trail. Airline travel is
going through a revolution that dictates less passenger comfort and promises
more discomfort to come.

Sardines in a Tin

News channels have been bursting with horror
stories about cancellations and delays brought by this winter’s freakish
weather. Those are just sporadic, temporary horrors, however. What’s going on
inside commercial airplanes is producing agonies that are becoming the norm.

The space between airline seats is shrinking
and will shrink more. The New York Times reported recently that the space
between seats has fallen roughly 10 per cent in the last 20 years from 34
inches (which was not huge), to an average 30 to 32 inches. Budget operation
Spirit Airlines has reduced it’s between-seats space to 28 inches.

Besides reducing seating space some airlines
also are putting in thinner seats with less padding, eliminating reclining
seats and moving magazine pouches to above the tray tables.

Airline seat space is getting smaller as many of us get
bigger and bigger, an average 20 pounds bigger in the past few decades.

There is a bright side to all this – lower ticket
prices. Travellers have demanded lower fares and cutting seating space is one
way airlines can provide that. Tighter seat space equals more seats per plane, equals
more revenue on the bottom line.

Being an airline passenger these days requires
the stamina of Roman gladiators and the patience of angels.

Friday, January 3, 2014

More evidence today of how our society sadly continues to lose touch
with nature. The Internet was alive today with questions about ‘mysterious’ booms
heard during the last couple of nights. Police departments received calls. News
outlets sprang into action, Googling for answers.

Earth Booming at Minus 33C

There was no mystery for anyone who has spent any time in winter country
outside the cities. The booming is water freezing and expanding deep in the
soil and rock during extreme cold. The ground cracks, sometimes explosively
enough to cause the ground to move.